government of the constitution and safeguard of the constitution such a parent could be a good parent of transition i believe as far as future is concerned we'll wait and see but being the incumbent president and being interested and not indifferent of the fate of our country in the political system of it and i spend a lot of time during my tenure to enhance it and streamline it no matter whether you believe it's a slow or rapid change i will come up with my future russian political system and i will make specific steps in that direction and also wish he's put. his last visit to a newspaper true to say that when the newspaper true that. the documents russia's accession to w two zero to be signed tomorrow will they be signed in the form of that was coordinated on the tenth of november by the experts in geneva. and in new conditions or points of provisions. i've just spoken to and the billion

through it through that it will in the going to the sacred thing tomorrow i hope no one will come up with a new points and we will not get a new paper in this because who have been. submerged in such strenuous efforts over the last two years and we've been queuing for it for so long there are . states that are more powerful than us and some weak economic low weakest states and it took all of them a less time to go through this path and we struggled hard to be there dollars here has advantages and drawbacks both but eventually it will be conducive to better cooperation of russia's economy the wall with other countries' economies and with the economy of the european union including. generally it's a victory a positive development and i'm glad that it is happening during my. residential.

i think once again all those. assisted russia during the final stage of w two accession i think our european union friends president of the united states barack obama we can see that the leadership of this was a confrontation and all the rest and all things and the russian team of negotiators . our government spent days and nights trying to resolve this issue i hope but tomorrow we will have no troubles good luck. ok that was president dmitri medvedev and the president of the european commission and powerful speaking live from brussels there the close of the russia e.u. summit well up next the man in charge of the world trade organization talks about russia's future in the global trading about the spotlight how next here on our city .

hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview show on our team. today my guest is pascal lamy. brush out will formally be invited to join the world trade organization and the matter of days it's been a really long and winding journey which began even before the world trade body was created but moscow and the w t o member states have had to make compromises to get

a final agreement so will it be worth it and what will change when russia officially becomes a man. the w c i was director general pascal lamy who's joining us from his office in geneva. says the w g o was established seventeen years ago moscow's b. to join was repeatedly thwarted for a variety of reasons the us for example had concerns about russia's financial markets the european union was worried about environmental protection but even when all the trade hurdles were cleared political obstacles remain soon after the conflict in south ossetia w.g. all member country georgia said it found a flaw in russian customs control and accession was postponed again but a couple of weeks ago moscow and believes he finally sold hi to y. and a deal was done after almost twenty years of knocking on. w. to his door it's finally going to.

boardroom if you're like me and thank you very much for joining us from thank you thank you it's a pleasure to have you on the show well first of all miss you let me your first reaction to the russia finally joining the w t o was i quote it's a victory for russia every tree for w t o members and a victory for the whole w t o n quote but if everybody one who lost over whom is this common victory. where it's common victory against time and the charm of trade and of trade relations and of trade negotiation . is that it's a win win game everybody can win if i do something better than you do and if you do something better than i do. we trade and we both win so

it's not a sort of negotiation zero sum game where there's a winner and a loser it's a victory for everybody this accession will benefit russia if we benefit russia's trading partners who are members of the world trade organization which we now cover ninety seven percent of world trade. and it's good news for the organization on a meet the world trade organization and having the name world trade organization without russia in let's be frank was a bit odd and of the four on your quote why is russia's membership such good news for other w t l members. well it's good news for existing members because they will be able to expand their trade with russia

on the norms and standards and regulations which now all of the wangs they apply between them says within the world trade organization it will make their trade relationship with russia more stable and more transparent more predictable so they will trade mole and because they will trade mall they will invest more in russia the accession of russia to the world truly is like giving to russia a sort of quality label which then will trigger more business opportunities for. members in russia and of course more investment because as we all know trade and investment in today's world are extremely tightly connected when we have this debate in russia

a bad weather whether it's good or bad for this country to join the w t o we very frequently elect china's example in fact china's economic performance since i joined back in two thousand and one i think has convinced many in moscow of the importance of being part of the w t o but china today is a major industrial giant and while russia mostly produces and sells raw materials will the membership for russia be as beneficial as it was for china what would you say. i mean you all you know right. i don't think china and russia are similar kountry is it going to be all trade pot ness the chinese economy as you rightly just said he's and much more

diversified manufacturer and we all know that for a long time the chinese growth was very much export oriented now that's the present situation but if i understand when what the russian leaderships wants to do in the future with the russian economy it's diversification. and joining the w t o will be a leverage an incentive to diversify in using russia specific competitive advantages given the amount and the availability of its natural resources russia can integrate downstream in manufacturing sectors for whom the price of energy is extremely important given the quality of its education and the quality of its workforce russia can expand in services for instance

where they raise a lot of them and well what so i don't think we should look at this in a static way true for the moment the trade that russia changes is very much export of raw material and energy and imports of manufactured also is bought there is there is a big potential for russia to expand downstream in let's say if not chinese like at least manufacturers and services what do you think when will russia become a full fledged member of the w t o without any special status and special conditions. i mean. the deed is no dong no this will be gathered as we say in allah jargon by the ministerial conference next

week and from then on well the only legal missing piece will be the ratification by the duma. and russia. formerly the leader of the joint the world trade organization thirty days after the we have a right to fight these deal which we all hope with happen but you know this is this is on which has to be taken by the russian parliament ok well we journalists are awaiting the a session russia and to the devil each of course we we expect news we expect breaking news like bankruptcy this happens when countries become members do you expect a lot of bankruptcies happening in russian industries after it happens what i mean i i think you are correct your looking at news headlines. both on the

economic side and on the political side. and just let's start with the political side with one thing that will change for the moment russia. because it's not a member of the organization has no participation in the decisions of the organization now with its accession on russia against a seat at the table where the rules of a global trade are crafted and this season politically a major improvement now on the economy true to more opening of russia's market. even if there are transitions that have been negotiated by the russian negotiators are a number of the russian production systems will be. more

competition competitive pressure from the outside now again psalm would be happy about that the others will be less happy and there is always a time for adjustment which is why these transition periods of the effort which russia is making the opening its market and it's going to meet when it's joined the organization will not be big bang next week there are many areas where there are transitions period which roughly an order of magnitude of five years so there will be some this is city for adjustment for dr shannon for the time. that russian consumers also benefit from an economy which will be more efficient more efficient meaning lower prices on a number of consumer goods so you mentioned you mentioned the consumers does that

mean that the that the. membership of russia in the w t o will make my wife happy because she she may if she does the shopping in our family. your wife should certainly be happy like all consumers i mean i'm not exactly aware of that which short of a shop she goes to and how much she spend but over all of the experience of the past has led up to you know where prices because more competition and a adjustment of labor capita to this new set of economic activity again it won't happen overnight but if you look at a recent example whether it's. vietnam whether it's ukraine which all sorts of countries which are much smaller up than russia but which joined in recent

years this is what the numbers that us says pass kind of like me that when he tells director general spotlight will be back shortly right after breaks out stay way you want them to. wealthy british style i'm. trying to explain. to. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with mike's cause or the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our. welcome back to spotlight i'm al gore norman just a reminder that my guest today is pascal like me the w.h.o. director general and he is joining us right now from his office in geneva. me can you tell us if and. when will the relative weight

of. economies well when will it be changing within the w t l framework. well. on such a question is that it's already been changing a lot. let's say for the last ten years the world trade organization today he's very different from what it was ten or fifteen years ago just look at the map of world trade or even the map of world growth. in two thousand and eleven hall full of the growth of the world output will be in imagining and developing countries this proportion was you know twenty twenty five percent ten years ago so it's already totally changed and this has had

consequences on the way that w.q. works. ten or fifteen years ago those are the sort of big club of big elephants who are leading the negotiation where u.s. you can add up japan in the last year of its being in u.s. you china india resid japan is to their kind of that is still there but this has already totally changed the functioning of this organization and i have no doubt that russia in joining the organization will accept a rate these moves of rebalancing. the world trade around the shop and world trade with a much more prominent weight of. and developing economies well what is the w t o d doing to reduce the

difference and deal mystic trade and production regulations in the member states when. they will try to vacation in the business of opening trade removing obstacle to trade of. and not in the business of regulating banking or distribution or chemical products safety or toys safety this is not our business this is dawn and swear in the international system where norms and standards and regulations are in so far as they have to be agreed international to be. negotiated and adopted the international standard of aition the food and agricultural organization the weald

health organizations are the. system the financial stability of all now for banking and an insurance these are the places where these international standards are adopted what we do in the world trade organization is make sure all that when countries use what we call non if barriers to trade and regulatory requirements standards and norms very few kaixian that they do that in a way that these compatible with their obligations in that you know you'll have the right as a member of the riggio to protect the health of your consumers and. any mudda clones if the trade relationship you have is a threat for hadith and emotional. humans or pounds which simply check that

this is done in a way that is not a sort of a twisted way of protecting domestic industries or as long as you apply the same standard. to your domestic operator and to your foreign operator there is a sort of presumption that you are w g o compliant. of the eight w.t.f. ministerial meeting this month doesn't have an its agenda event ahead end of a breakthrough on the doha round of multilateral trade negotiations why why are the doha trade negotiations in such at that law can you explain. well i mean the minister and conference we are having with all our members next week in geneva we look at the whole of the.

activities of our organization yes we have trade negotiations the purpose of which is to update modernize the rulebook but we also have a lot of activities in administration of these rumors in monitoring and surveillance we have of course the dispute settlement system which as you know is a very specific one because the decisions of all the asian systems are binding on all members and we also have the whole day we are a trade technical assistance for poor developing countries so the minister conference we look at the whole of our activities provided as it should guidance for the next two years you're right on the negotiations of new trade rules which is these big negotiation we call the door trade realm because we started it indoor up. ten years ago for the moment for the moment we haven't been able to

conclude this negotiation now not that own lot has not already been negotiated bought for reasons which mainly have to do. with the inability of negotiators to find the right balance the right compromise the right tradeoff between giving up countries like us on the one side and emerging countries like say china on the other side for the moment these balance which is a sort of key to concluding these ten years when they were stationed has not yet been found and i think you remount among members in geneva is that this mystery conference should not be confronted with an intractable in saluda situation not they've witnessed this they've acknowledged that for the moment these negotiations are at an impasse we need their input and next year our

members negotiators and experts will see if and how this blockage situation can be exhibited there are a few ideas of how to do that on the table but you're right this will not be the very purpose of this mystery conference which is not in a way a negotiating conference i mishear limey a working group was set up in the november by the united states and the european union to exile arm and they potentiality of bilateral trade it is seen as a first major step by the developed countries to bypass the w t o r matters related to international trade isn't this. a bad sign for you doesn't it mean that the w t o is losing its relevance. well we've always had since the b.t.o.

and its predecessor got westerly to second for a wall we've always had a coexistence a cohabitation of multilateral trade rules which are the sole to the least common denominator to all our members whether it's. all the european union all top of that there are bilateral agreements. which europe japan china india lies in the us have or which go farther than the degree which has been multilaterally accepted in the world trade organization so is this a good thing or a bad thing is a very good question very difficult question to answer in a way it's a good thing because it opens trade lol and after all our business being to open

trade in old up to increase the potential to the welfare of economy is ease as well as served up by a bilateral trade opening as it is by multi that trade over opening so that's the good side if on the contrary a buy that through agreement leads to restrict trade not least for instance if you agree on the regulatory standards which would be bilateral and not multilateral then it can be a problem so it's not all black or white to. depends very much on what they result in these bilateral negotiations and you know once russia has joined the world trade have shrunk my expectation is that russia like other is well. into but not true and trade relationship which go beyond what they do. for instance with the european union missing money there seabrook who and just to

remind them that my guest today was by scholar like me doubly chose direction general who is joining us from his office in geneva and that's it for now for all of us here the spotlight will be back with more first on comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take a. well with. science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered.